Economic Council recommends ban on open grazing

Apparently ashamed herdsmen have continued to kill people across Nigeria with reckless abandon, the National Economic Council (NEC) has recommended measures to address the vexed issue currently threatening the unity of the country.

The council has therefore recommended a ban on the movement of herdsmen across the country starting with five states of Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna and Plateau, where the killings are most pronounced.

This development came following a meeting of the NEC on Thursday chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, all state governors, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and relevant ministers.

Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, who made the development known to State House correspondents after the meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, explained that ranching would be adopted in the five states, while the state governments would provide lands for that purpose.

According to Umahi, the resolution came after he submitted the report of a technical committee on farmers and herdsmen conflicts which he chaired to the council.

“In all, we agreed that movement is not profitable to the herdsmen because they value the milk from the cow even more than the cow itself. So, movement is not healthy for the cows as it dries up the meat and give less than two litres of milk per cow per day.

“So, we condemn the issues of foreign invasion by foreign herdsmen and l am happy that the Federal Government is doing something about it. We also agreed that these movements have to stop and occasionally by those who have settled and integrated from other parts of the country like the middle belt, they sometimes go into conflicts with farmers.

“So, in all we agreed that there is a more profitable and modern way of raising these cows if not by ranching. So, we have agreed that the states involved are going to give lands. Niger and Kaduna have given lands and Plateau is also giving land.

“Ranching is being practised in Mambila in Taraba State and they have success stories with regards to that.

“We also agreed that livestock production in Nigeria has not been taken care of. As we are taking care of the farmers by way of the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, of course the farmers cry of the high interest rate on the Anchor Borrowers Scheme. The rate of interest should be between 2 to 5 per cent, so, we should extend those gestures to the herdsmen,” he said.

The development came just as President Muhammadu Buhari also on Thursday assured Nigerians that his government was going to put a stop the “brutal and wanton killings” of Nigerians in some parts of the country very soon.

READ ALSO: If I hadn’t gone to school, I may have been involved in herdsmen fight –Buhari

In a statement made available to journalists by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, he said, “The President strongly warns citizens against playing into the hands of the agents of disunity. President Buhari says those behind the Church attack that left 18 people dead, including two priests, did not mean well for Nigeria and peaceful coexistence.

“The revenge attacks that followed in which 11 members of the Hausa communities were killed were part of the agenda of the bandits and their sponsors to turn Nigerians against one another. We must resist all temptation to fall into this laid out plan.

“The President is greatly pained by this persistent violence and the total disregard for the sanctity of life by those he called ‘these hideously evil people who have no iota of respect for humanity, decency and civilisation.’

“The President reiterates that the government will not rest on its oars in its determination to fish out these barbarous mass murderers and their clandestine sponsors. President Buhari equally assures Nigerians that measures being put in place by the government will, sooner than later, bring to an end, these extremely brutal and wanton killings.”

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